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Louisville's about-face on retail marijuana comes to a head this week

City Council to consider a moratorium on pot shops through the end of 2014

By John Aguilar Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
09/29/2013 01:00:00 PM MDT

Updated:
09/30/2013 05:48:51 PM MDT

If you go

What: City Council decision on an emergency moratorium on retail marijuana establishments

When: 7 p.m., Tuesday

Where: Louisville City Hall, 749 Main St.

CORRECTION: Louisville City Councilman Jay Keany's name originally was misspelled int his article.

LOUISVILLE -- It looked like a done deal.

Louisville City Council early this month was on track to pass the first set of comprehensive recreational marijuana regulations in Boulder County, establishing buffers between pot shops and schools, limiting the stores' square footage and setting hours of operation. The council passed some tentative rules on first reading Sept. 3 and prepared to look at a more refined set of regulations at its meeting two weeks later.

That's when the wheels fell off the blunt bus.

City Council members were inundated with emails and phone calls urging the city to take a much more cautious approach to allowing retail marijuana operations in town. More than a dozen people showed up at the Sept. 17 council meeting to express their opposition to pot shops in town.

They argued that a proliferation of recreational marijuana shops in Louisville would be inconsistent with the city's family-friendly image. They also argued that even though 62 percent of residents in the city voted in favor of Amendment 64 -- the state law legalizing possession and use of small amounts of marijuana by those 21 and over -- last November, that didn't automatically translate into residents wanting cannabis outlets all over town.

The message got through to Louisville's elected leaders loud and clear and at its last meeting. The council asked staff to bring back language for a moratorium prohibiting the operation of any retail marijuana establishments in the city until after voters get a say on the issue in November 2014.

The City Council is scheduled to vote on the emergency ordinance Tuesday. It must pass by a two-thirds majority to take effect.

'Not in my town'

Councilwoman Sue Loo said the about-face on recreational marijuana wasn't something she and her colleagues knew was coming.

"When we started out, there was almost no opposition," Loo said. "All of a sudden, there was this huge campaign with people saying, 'Not in my town, this is bad for kids.'"

Mayor Bob Muckle was also taken aback by the sudden flurry of concern about pot shops among his constituents but said the commotion raised some interesting questions about just how the electorate interprets the intent and meaning of Amendment 64 and how the law should play out at the street level.

"The most compelling argument was made by those who supported Amendment 64 to decriminalize marijuana but made the point that you can't assume that those who supported the amendment wanted retail marijuana stores in their community," Muckle said. "But we hadn't heard from any opposition prior to this."

Now the council finds itself hearing not just from retail marijuana opponents, but from the other side as well. A significant backlash has developed since the Sept. 17 meeting, with those in favor of a retail marijuana presence in the city chastising the council for giving into a "reefer madness" mentality.

"Who knew that you would kowtow at the last minute to a group of Louisville loons?" wrote Gail Hartman in a Sept. 18 email to the council.

Councilman Jay Keany, who has been one of the more vocal voices urging his colleagues to regulate retail marijuana like they do liquor stores, said a moratorium is a bad idea. He said Amendment 64 was very clear about establishing a system for growing, processing and selling legal marijuana in the state and that Louisville was taking a very cautious approach regarding cannabis operations in the city.

Cultivation would have remained illegal and no more than four or five shops would have been permitted to open their doors in Louisville, with no pot shops allowed in the downtown district whatsoever.

Concern over town's existing dispensaries

Keany said the two medical marijuana dispensaries in the city have attracted no police attention in the four years they have been operating, whereas bars and restaurants serving liquor haven't had quite as clean a record with law enforcement. Prohibiting retail marijuana establishments will simply push the drug out of the light of the day and deeper into the black market, he said.

"When you don't allow something to happen in a legal manner, you encourage it to happen in an illegal manner," Keany said.

He also worries about Louisville's dispensaries not being able to convert to recreational marijuana licenses should the moratorium pass. That, he said, would essentially kill them financially as medical marijuana dispensaries statewide gradually convert to retail pot establishments, which will require nothing more of customers than a valid ID to purchase pot.

Keany thinks the city should at the least make an exception for the two dispensaries in town, allowing them to operate as retail shops starting in January.

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